Various devices have been previously disclosed for repairing panels of damaged vehicles, such as automobiles. Some previously disclosed methods involved welding a piece of metal to a damaged vehicle and then applying a pulling force to the welded metal tab. Alternative devices have been designed to be inserted into a relatively small hole which is drilled into the damaged vehicle panel. After partial insertion through the hole, the device was manipulated so that two fingers would spread out behind the drilled hole in order to engage the damaged portion of the panel to allow a pulling force to be applied.
As previously disclosed, panel repair devices suffered from several disadvantages. The use of a welded tab required extra work and, after the panel had been pulled, the tab had to be removed and the metal surface under the tab required repair to conceal where the welding had occurred. To the best of the present inventor's knowledge, the previously disclosed devices which were inserted through holes drilled in the metal disclose the use of two fingers which could be spread behind the drilled hole. Some such previously disclosed devices provided little surface area of contact between the straightening device and the inner side of the damaged panel, thereby putting unnecessary forces on relatively small sections of the damaged panel. Such devices would have a tendency to damage the panel with stretching forces, thus requiring additional repair. Moreover, the fact that such previously disclosed devices utilized two fingers resulted in the application of a pulling force generally along a line or a plurality of spaced lines, rather than in a plane.